harddrive problems

i am trying to add an HDD to my computer its 9GIG only small i only want it there to put some stuff on while i format. but when i add it to my comp and start it up, it says not detected and a few second later says:

np... I changed the title of the thread to hard drive problems which it appears to be

I would have to ask you to state what ide/atapi devices you have in your system... what channels they are in and what is the slave/master configuration... because it seems to be a slave/master problem rather than anything else...

Ok this could be a long one ....... you need to understand some things about ide devices here ...... take the HDD in your hands and look at it ... somewhere there is a little diagram and it has a little black pin placed in a certain postion making the HDD either a slave drive /master drive /or a cable select drive ...

on some newer ones other settings but we dont need to worry about these all you need to worry about is setting this up either as a primary or secondary slave / or a primary/secondary master ....

ok when you open your machine you have a HDD already installed and a CD or CD/burner ....... look at that setup ...... are the HDD and the CD on the same ribbon??? if yes most likely its HDD master / CD slave ....... on the motherboard you have (most likley) two ide channels which allows 4 devices ....... follow the ribbon from your OLD HDD to the motherboard see where it connects?? that is your IDE channel next to that do you have a free connector? or are both your IDE channels in use??

if they are both in use tell us what is connected to the ribbons? ..... you need to go into the bios and set up the IDE channels best way for you would be to ( load setup defaults) after installing the new HDD its very important to place the little pin in the correct postion ... if you place the new HDD on the same ribbon as the OLD HDD then the new HDD is a slave and is connected to the ribbon with the last connector the ribbon has three black connections (usally ) and two are closer together ....

the one that is farthest away is the end we connect to the motherboard, then you connect the next one on the ribbon to the first HDD ( master) and the last one to the new HDD ( slave ) making sure that the pins on the OLD AND NEW HDD's are set as OLD ( master) and new (SLAVE) and if you have a CD or a burner or both follow same as above place ONE ( pin master ) and ONE (pin slave) and again after all the devices are properly connected you boot up go into the bios and load the setup defaults ...

hope this helps some configurations need to be fiddled a little ie a burner might want to be master and the basic CD a slave ... or set up both HDD'd as masters and then add a burner as a primary slave and the cd as a secondary slave I hope this helps ........

[edit] sorry kermit... I edited your post to include paragraphs to make it easier to read - Sazar [/edit]